Toyota 'regrets' disruption in Caribbean supplies

•Automaker loses global top spot •Touts humanitarian support to quake victims

By Julian Richardson

Friday, February 03, 2012

Tokyo, JAPAN — Toyota Motor Corporation says supplies to the region suffered last year due to the earthquake and tsunami which damaged factories in Japan.

"At least for two weeks after (March 11) disaster, all factory operations stopped, and even after restoration and resumption of operations, factories were operating between 30 to 50 per cent capacity," Masami Doi, head of the Public Affairs Division at Toyota Motor Corporation, told Latin American and Caribbean journalists at the firm's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday.

"Of course, during that time, supplies were impacted to Latin America, Caribbean and the United States," Doi said.

This follows news that Tokyo lost its spot as the world's leading auto maker in 2011, during which it saw annual global sales decline by 5.6 per cent to 7.95 million units. Its sales were hurt because the March earthquake in Japan slowed its factories, and dealers ran short of cars to sell, reported the Associated Press.

According to Doi, the Latin American and Caribbean markets receive most of their shipments directly from Japan in complete format.

"We very much regret that there was much inconvenience to our clients," he said.

Toyota has three factories in the Tohuku region of Japan that suffered the most severe damage by the earthquake and tsunami - one for engine and transmission, and the other two for production of vehicles.

But Doi revealed that the firm did not place top priority on recovering its production after the disaster.

"President Mr (Akio) Toyoda said the three priorities (in order) were human life, most importantly, then recovery of human livelihood in region, and then recovery of production," outlined Doi.

"We could have continued to produce vehicles... but we had to support the people living around the factory and in need," he said.

Doi said Toyoda's rationale was, because the workers in the Tohuku area would have had to work to supply the parts to the factory, it would mean they would not have been able to help their family and other people in the region who were suffering as a result of the disaster.

Toyota offered significant humanitarian aid to victims of the earthquake and tsunami, including a pledge of 300 million yen to charities, including the The Central Community Chest of Japan and the Japan Platform. Additionally, Toyota executives and employees donated 55 million yen through the Japanese Red Cross.

What's more is that the firm announced in July that it would invest more in the Tohuku via the consolidation of the three operations in the region, with the resulting entity specializing in compact vehicles.

"Many people asked why Toyota would shift to Tohuku because it had a lot of risk," Doi acknowledged.

"We wanted to give them hope for the future, but we also found that there are many good suppliers there from doing research after the disruption in our production," he explained..

Toyota finished fourth in global sales last year, as General Motors regained the top spot, the position it held for seven decades before losing it to Toyota in 2008, after selling 9.03 million vehicles. Volkswagen took second place with record global sales of 8.16 million, up 14 percent from the year before. The French-Japanese alliance of Renault and Nissan was third, selling 8.03 million vehicles.